Hop Til You Drop

 

Michelle at Quilting Gallery loves a good party, so it's that time again. I'd suggest that she wants to save money on party favors by making us bloggers provide the prizes, but I'd hate to sound like I think that isn't brilliant.

Welcome, Quilting Hotties, one and all! As the tagline reads, it's not a look, it's an attitude, and therefore no one is disqualified due to leg length, hair length, or even stitch length. I embrace my hottie side by keeping it light, keeping it fresh (both in projects and attitude) and keeping it real, and I hope you'll consider stopping in again and again to recharge your own hottieness.

Depending upon what time you read this on November 21, I may well be sewing my head off at my guild's Open Sew, where I will be running a dumbed-down version of my "Round Robin in a Day" workshop with a few friends. After a day of epic block fails yesterday, I actually just finished my center block they'll be starting with, and I just love it.

Isn't it fun how the design wall is just like a gigantic used lint roller?

This class is great fun to facilitate, and even more fun to participate in, and I am so pumped to not only be creating and designing all day tomorrow as I add to three other participants' quilts, but also to be the one screaming "WE HAVE 10 MINUTES LEFT IN THIS ROUND! NO MORE TIME! GET IT DONE! NOW!" like a lunatic. Time will tell how much the other ladies appreciate my candor and inflexibility in relation to clock management.

Half the fun of this class is the prep, not only in making a cool center block, but also in rolling around naked in your stash to find all sorts of yardage to bring along for everyone to work with during the day. I found this baby and really hope it gets used!

I only wish I had more. And that trees really could be polka dotted.

I always suggest quilters bring only about 4 yards total of fabrics they would like to see in their finished round robin because we don't have room for everyone to bring their entire stashes, but you know no one listens. I kid you not, the last time I taught this class, this was Judi's work area.

There's a show-off in every crowd.

In truth, I WAS jealous of the cart.

We'll see how well my victims fellow participants follow the guidelines tomorrow. Knowing a couple of them as I do, I have little faith that we won't have at least one overpacker.

Even if you read this early, I am excited that I can come back and update with a photo of the finished round robin after the class. It will be "summerweight," as the class only guarantees leaving with a top, not a finished quilt, but I promise the transformation will be amazing. If it isn't, you'll pretend it is.

Update: We didn't quite finish. I blame the facts that I couldn't be an effective whip cracker while sewing myself, and I was working with some of the most perfectionist, most amazing quilters I know, who would not be rushed. But who cares? The results are gorgeous!

The bottom two will be completed by our guild meeting in a couple of weeks. But they've started strong.

Besides workshops and my rather hilarious and awesome but I really shouldn't say that as it sounds kinda boastful trunk show lectures for guilds and other groups, I am a quilt designer for myself and various publications, creator of "Drop and Give Me Twenty", organizer of one or two group quilt projects through this blog every year, and a mom of three girls way too young to drive themselves anywhere and who never all want to be in the same place at the same time. I'm also currently developing a new attraction coming to QHH in 2014: "Hottie Hotseat" - A monthly post highlighting an industry professional in five hard-hitting questions or less, several of them guaranteed snarky. You'll hear about it all here at QHH, and I hope you'll pop in and participate in some or all of it! 

And now we come to the goodie bag goods. To celebrate the blog hop, I'm giving away the items pictured in this oh-so-professional-looking photo. I live in the northeast. We have like 4 hours of daylight this time of year. Forgive me.

Items pictured are way more awesome than they appear.

Should you be my big winner, you will receive:

• One copy of "Diamond Dazzle," an original booklet-style pattern by moi. Five sizes, cool border options, great fun.
• Six fat-quarter-ish orange and teal modern prints. I received these from Lemon Tree Fabrics, and they are ends of bolts. They are awesome, although slightly oddly sized. You will undoubtedly deal because they are so pretty.
• Five spools of Mettler thread in various shades of pink

To enter, please leave a comment telling me your favorite appetizer or pie. Recipes not needed, but I'd never turn it down. You'll be helping me greatly as I prepare to contribute both next week to the day of merriment, thankfulness, and sheer joyous gluttony we call Thanksgiving.

For an extra entry let me know if you follow Quilting Hottie Haven. And if you don't follow, I'll need a two page single-spaced essay explaining why not.

Kidding.

Good luck, and happy hopping!